Sunday, February 13, 2011

“I’ve learnt so much from every film and every director – a new perspective, a greater appreciation of the art.” -Sally Menke

Who is Sally Menke? Oh, I think you know. I can guarantee that you've seen her work.

In her career, she has won a San Diego Film Critics Society Award and a Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award and been nominated for two Academy Awards, two American Cinema Editors ACE Eddie Award, two BAFTA Film Awards, and an Online Film Critics Society OFCS Award. She has edited over twenty films. Still not sure where you know that name? Well, she has been the one and only editor for one Quentin Tarantino.

"I do feel there’s an internal rhythm in every person which is reflected in your work. Somehow a painting looks like its painter. There’s an innate response to footage that I feel is very much mine. Sometimes it’s not at all what Quentin or another director wants, so I change it. I approach the footage in a detailed way, looking at mannerisms as much as I listen to the dialogue- what their body is saying." -Sally Menke

That's damn right. Sally was the genius editor who brought you everyTarantino masterpiece from Reservoir Dogs to Inglourious Basterds. They met when Quentin held interviews for an editor. He sent her the script for Reservoir Dogs and she said that she thought it was "amazing".

Sally Menke was hiking in Canada when she decided to call and see if she got the job and was told that she had been successful. Sally went on to work with Tarantino on everything that he has done; Tarantino has been quoted as saying, "The best collaborations are the director-editor teams, where they can finish each other's sentences," and that Sally was his "only, truly genuine collaborator." Sally Menke was later elected as a member of the American Cinema Editors.

“I don’t do match cuts really. That’s a ridiculous thing to say – I do. But we always explore how we can propel a scene, and that’s including dialogue, without doing match cuts. Because the audience is really willing to accept a lot of discontinuity.” -Sally Menke

It is with great sadness that I say that we lost this incredible woman this past year. She has left behind a legacy of cinematic history and a void that can never be filled. Sally Menke was an amazing talent and I am very happy to include her amongst our inspirational Women in Horror.

I sincerely hope that her work inspires future women to follow in her footsteps. In a world where little girls are told to grow up and be actresses, I hope that Sally's astounding contributions to film will encourage little girls to be story tellers themselves and step behind the camera.